Sunday, 28 June 2015

I say it nearly every time, but what. a. week. So much has happened that well we are almost bursting at the seams with information. The decisions would make number 10 look shabby! Ok, ok, so you want to know too, well here goes....

Starting with the most exciting. Our first sculpt was finished this morning! Our talented sculptor Lux has been hard at work, dealing with all of my micro comments and viola we have a finished green. The model will be winging its way to us in the next few days. Can't wait!

The background art for "Nuns!" has been completed by the also super talented Ania! Watch out for this, a whole bunch of characters has been created for this faction in the last few days and we hope you will love them!

The Soul Train has artwork for it's latest member. What a cool dude!

Samples have been arriving from producers and a decision has been made!

We hosting is now agreed and we have moved a few steps closer to a starting point for the website.

Our first few sales of our cool posters have left the building, thank you very much!

phew. Even my hands are tired from typing that!

So on to today's snippet. Releasing art and creating a back story is quite tricky. In fact as I approach my 35th birthday, I'm learning a whole new raft of skills and information as I work with my colleague at Underestimated Games to bring this project to life. One thing we have found is that a steady release of information will really help people connect with the project, but doing so in isolation can often leave people confused. Well if you are one of those people, hopefully a little run down of who's who will help you understand a bit more.

In our game, there will initially be 5 factions:

Renegades

Choirs

Death

Revelations

Decimators

For those following the project to date you will know of some of the characters, so we thought we would now tell you where they fit and a brief bit about them. Note, not all names will appear here, as well, you know we need some secrets.... right....

Renegades - These are the guys that were booted out of Heaven. Satan, who was the ring leader in chief had a go for the throne and well was given the age old heave-ho.

Lucretia - You've seen this lady. She is a warrior unparalleled, a paragon of fighting prowess and even though she was on the losing side, not one drop of her own blood did she shed. All she wants to do, is have a good scrap, whenever possible.

Erishkigal - A key person in Heaven, Erishkigal was the keeper of souls, it was her domain that the souls found eternal peace but now she is using her power over the souls under her command to take her revenge on God.

Moloch - In Heaven, this guy was the one responsible for the Death of the first born! On Earth he has taken to possessing a great statue and will not stop until every child has been sacrificed to him! (nice chap ey?)

Choirs - The few. A great many angels died in the war for heaven, those loyal more so, for Satan's trap was sudden and cunning. Having licked their wounds, they gather now in force to hunt down the renegades and reset the balance of power on Earth.

Penemue - One of the choirs of 'watchers'. Penemue has been on Earth before the late JC, teaching man oh before he can even recall. Penemue is mans Faith, his shield against all of the worlds depravations.

Ariel - Of God's angels Ariel was by far the most cunning. Ariel is the beastmaster, the hunter of foes and no matter which realm you reside in, your sanctuary is only temporary when Ariel is in pursuit.

Death - Well you know quite a bit about this little old Gal. Death is Eve, the first Woman of God's creation. Though she has been immortal since the early days, her sadness grows as her children tear themselves apart. Death seeks to reset the clock, to oversee the death of man, wiping the canvass clean for God to start again and to truly be free.

Noah - God gave Noah a task. Gather the animals and steer them to safety. For the Earth had become wicked and man needed a second chance. Noah did this and in many guises has aided the fall of civilisations over and over again. An apex predator and killer, Death has enlisted Noah to truly bring about the end of mankind as we know it.

Revelations - There are those in Heaven (and on Earth ;) ) that did not fight in the war for Heaven. Some looked for the victor in truly heroic fashion, others simply distanced themselves for reasons unknown. These individuals have their own agenda's that could have a significant bearing on everyone.

St Peter - The angel that guards the holy gates. He's like keeper of the keys, God's number one right? Wrong. This guy is pig sick of men. Imagine having to sit just outside of heaven and never getting in for all that time? Yup and he blames mankind, all of us. So it's not looking good for us right now!

Decimation - These guys don't play. Even the angels truly fear these guys. For they are few but boy oh boy do they pack a punch. Think of these guys as the head master, all the other factions are kids in a playground to this lot and guess what?

Play. time. is. over.

Anyway guys, we don't want to critical strike you with reels of text, so we will leave it there. We hope you like the sound of the above and that now you can place some people in the bigger picture. Over the coming weeks we will be talking about all of these characters and a lot more, as we haven't even talked about the humans yet!! ;)

Sunday, 21 June 2015

Second faction "Refugees of Religion" (not a finalised name) have been fleshed out, the characters created ready for the art sketch book. Good times!

Artwork for the 'Cathedral' is almost finished by the super talented Ania, it's good, oh it's good.

First card art is finished and ready to go to the printers!

Another of the 'Soul Train' has scorched his way into the inbox!

Death is almost done. You might have seen the images of the first phase on our page and now the scissors have been added, it's just a case of adding the last few details and she will be ours, our we tell you!

It's a fun process, this creating your own company and range of models. The creativity available within the team we have here at Purgatory is quite breathtaking at times and the response we are getting from behind the scenes conversations and sampling has been overwhelming.

So on today's BLOG we said that we would be talking about Death. Well actually you are in for a bit of a treat (well we certainly think so) and not only will you learn about who our Death is, it is also comes in a sample story that will be featuring on our website.

Without further ado, we present Death

Death(also known as "The Old Dame", "Eve" and "The Long Night")

Before Death:When Adam was exiled, Eve though that God would forgive Adam and allow him once more to walk among his children. The years passed as if days and Eve cared for and nurtured her many children as any mother would, confident that God would someday return Adam to her.

Their children grew old and had their own children in turn. Each son choosing a new path and direction to expand and build upon the idea of man. As they did so, Eve grew old and frail, long and companion-less. As time marched ever onward, God saw bitterness and resentment take root in Eve's heart and for the last time he came to Eve and gave her a choice.

God offered Eve the ability to watch over her far roaming children, to be the mother he designed her to be. For God knew the mortality of mankind and entrusted Eve with guiding the souls of her children to the next realms. With this great task came the curse of immortality for all of man is a child of Eve and until each human had breather its last, Eve could not rest.

Reluctantly Eve agreed for she could no longer bear the paid of longing and loneliness.

As Death:Eve struggled to adapt to this role, watching on in horror as mankind became murderous, treacherous and false. Even worse still were the first few. Facing her sons and daughters to harvest their soul was torturous, for when they gazed upon her new form at their end, they could only ask: "Why?"

In order to detach herself from the pain of misunderstanding and hatred, Eve scoured the lands to build an effigy, to hide her true identity. When Eve had gathered the necessary materials Death as we know him today, came into being.

From that point until now, Eve as Death, has become a figure of terror and awe, for wherever she is near, the end is never far.

In Game:

In Purgatory you will be able to field Death in one of three formats:

As 'Eve' with the blades of Wrath and Ruin

As 'Death', a towering construct of impending doom

As both, a terrifying combination of razor sharp intellect and brutal strength

Next time around on our BLOG we will talk some more about the main characters in our world and how they are likely to feature and when.

Monday, 15 June 2015

With each week comes new and fresh challenges, but it’s
great and we love it! “So what’s new then?”
I hear you ask…

Firstly it would be remiss not to offer a congratulations to
Greg Howe and Steven Hutchinson who both won posters as part our first ever
competition. You may have seen on our page, pictures of these in the packaging
ready to be shipped. It was great that a number of people took part in this and
submitted a response and we are glad to give these to worthy winners. One of
which is all the way across the world in Australia!

So this week in Purgatory:

The green for the Old Dame – Death is in the final
stages, with the last details being put together by our talented sculptor on
the scissors!

We have agreed a couple of deals in the past few
days that will see Purgatory models available from UK and US retailers, please
watch this space for more information!

Moloch is looking super scary and the third
member of Soul Train skated his into our inbox just yesterday

The first images for our website have been
uploaded and character bio’s are in development, we hope that we will be going
live in the next few weeks

Our first card art has arrived from the super
talented Sarana and well we are over the moon!

Leaving the updates above on the card art, almost allows us
to follow into this week’s topic: Cards.

Purgatory Miniatures is going to be a table top skirmish
based game, that has a progressive element to it so that your gaming experience
will grow alongside that of the characters you play with. It has always been
our ambition to offer something different, that is where the cards come into
play.

In the Short Term,
each model that we produce will be accompanied by a playing card. Each will be
a unique commissioned piece of art that will be in the image of the model. The
cards will initially have 2 faces, with each side having a different
background. The cards are being included as a fun, yet quick, side game for people
to play.

A Side Game? Yes,
as being a founding member of a local gaming club and having been to a number
of competitions before, there can be a lot of standing time. That bit between
waiting for a table or waiting for your opponents to finish as you casually watch
on. The idea of the card game is so that you can play a game of cards whilst you
wait or just for fun, without having to invest in yet another system. It helps
to bide the time whilst having short, sharp fun!

How does it work? It’s a spin-off of a popular card game
that uses a board. Each card has a number on each edge which is used in the game
to flip your opponents card, or be flipped in turn. The game system will have a
number of variations on the rules to make it simple or complicated. The best
thing is that you can play your friends for cards and collect the ones you don’t
have!

Each model will have its own card but as time passes,
generic card sets will be introduced to expand upon the game. It’s really
simple and quite exciting and more detailed information will be released in the
coming weeks as we continue to play test the rules.

In the Long Term
we are aiming to integrate equipment cards into the gaming system. This will
see each model have a card that corresponds to their weapon, equipment or
abilities. The aim is to then release alternative variations on these cards to
help keep the game fresh and increase the number of options available to you
whilst playing our game.

As you can see, we are working very hard to explore
different ways of bringing an interactive, progressive and inclusive table top
gaming experience to you, alongside high quality models with a quirky side,
supported by detailed backgrounds and underpinned by a unique background world.
So when we say we are having great fun in bringing these to you, we truly mean
it as it allows us to have be creative and have a lot of fun to achieve our
goals!

Well, we will leave you there. Next time we will have a
little further look at the Bio for Death and learn a bit more about who the
lady behind the mask.

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

We hope you are all find and dandy and preparing for the
spectacular British summer ahead. So what’s new?

A new artist has joined our team with a specific
purpose of looking at card art. It’s early stages but the results are looking
very good.

Our poster competition is up and running, don’t
forget to submit your answer by Sunday!

We had our first glimpse of the website yesterday
and we are quite excited!

Death: “The act or
fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism”

We keep talking about this character and you have likely
seen from the art we have released and from the chatter on these halls, that
Death is our first model that we will be releasing for you to buy.

Who is Death? We
all have our pre conceived ideas of what Death might look like, quite often it
is a skull, with a black cloak and a huge scythe which can often be combined with
an hourglass. The scythe to demonstrate a harvesting of the soul and the
hourglass to suggest that your time is up.

Hang on a minute, isn’t
your Death a little old lady?Yep,
well spotted. She is indeed. The design process for Purgatory is to try and
break down cliché barriers and emerge from the other side. When we think about
a new character, we look at how they can be different. What spin can we apply
to readjust the thinking to make something quite unique. We hope we have done
that by applying a different approach. In some cultures, there is reference to
the ‘cutting’ of ones ‘thread’. The scissors are symbolic of this different
approach.

So the Old Dame is
Death! Yes…. And no… muhahhaha (evil laugh)! Whilst we have a different
spin for Death how on earth could we truly deny you, the gaming and painting
public an opportunity to get to grips with a big ol’ monster. When we designed
death, the lady with scissors was a secondary phase. Initially we thought it
would be fun to have the big scary monster but that it was puppeteer’d by the
oldest granny on the earth. Boom.

So is there more than
one Death?!Yes, in fact there are 3
versions. We wanted to bring you guys a big monster. But again, not wanting to
conform to cliché we have made our version into a construct. To us this felt
like a great way of demonstrating something was controlled by someone else
whilst offering a different view. We have also retired the age old trusty skull
mask, in favour of a number of masks so to represent the different cultures!

Why would Death be a
puppeteer inside the construct, it’s the modern day? Good point, let’s just
say that Death has the option of being a radio controlled car (of sorts) and
leave it there for you to ponder…. J

Something else that occurred to us is that we could give you
guys some options in game. Rather than have just the typical monster running
a-mock, we have instead come up with 3 ways in which you can use Death in game,
all of which are uniquely different in the way they work, which gives variety
to players in certain scenarios and games.

All in all, Death is coming! First off, she will look like a
wee lady in her tweed but don’t underestimate her, she packs a mighty punch!

Our Death is over 50% complete and we are hyped at the
progress of our super talented sculptor. In the coming days and weeks we will
be putting pictures of the progress on our facebook page for you to follow.

Thank you all, for supporting this project and we hope you
are enjoying our progress.

Saturday, 6 June 2015

The wheels of industry have been turning here at Purgatory and let me tell you, things are hotting up! In the last few days alone, the following has landed in our inbox:

Moloch Art. This guy is quite literally a beast and Dario is doing a fantastic job!

Posters! A few of you have asked if we do posters. Well we didn't, but we now do. These will appear on our page in the coming days and you can buy these in the coming days, exciting!

Death. We have been posting bits of our Old Dame these last few days and wow wow wow, the green is at the mid way point and we are super hyped!

The Soul Train has departed and is en route to Platform 9!

Domains have been secured and the website is now under way...

Phew.... We didn't even come here tonight to tell you this but well, we just had to tell you.

So, onto what we promised. Siren

Siren was our first model design and feedback has really be interesting on this model.

The idea behind Siren was to add a bit of naughtiness to some of our Angels. You may or may not know or heard of the Succubus, well, in short, these are She Demons that are your every day hell spawned seductress.

Angels have this sense of purity and from religious texts, they a pious, infallible, pure and kind of heart. We didn't want that.

So what we done instead was add some naughtiness and combined elements of Angels and Succubus to create Siren.

In historical texts, you read of brave heroes, who after a great victory or battle, walk away from the hearth fire and are never seen again. Some sleep walk and fall to their doom or walk straight into the enemy camp and are slaughtered. The siren call, or a mans wyrd it has often been known as.

All, if not a great deal of these were the work of Siren, who fixated and filled with desire for Man, Siren ensnares these great warriors and champions and eternally tethers them to her realm, where they will fight each other endlessly for her adoration and love as Siren gazes across in rapture.

Siren is not all that bad, just a bit naughty and though God get's a mite frustrated by her actions, he tolerates this transgression, though only just. For Siren has many uses and God will oft call upon Siren to manipulate mankind and foe alike for the greater good of the realm.

What with it being such a long week, the night is drawing to close and with that I will bid you all a good weekend.